Sunday, July 22, 2007

Peeking and Pottering

This morning, I gave into temptation and searched for a summary of howthe Harry Potter series ends (no spoilers here). I haven't followedthe books, though I have seen the movies. I didn't feel temptation toread the last book, but I still wanted to know what happened to thecharacters. Funnily enough, having read a paragraph-length summary ofthe ending, I now feel tempted to get the book and watch how thecharacters' unfold to get there.

This is pretty reflective of my overall work style, come to think ofit. I enjoy figuring things out, but mostly when I have a good mentalpicture of where that process will get me. When I first startinglearning to use computers, I hated being told "just play with it". Icouldn't feel productive with so little structure. I hugelyappreciate the value and education of exploration in an undefinedspace (I loathe asking for directions given how much of a map I figureout from being a little lost). I need some semblemce of a target(recognizable, if underspecified) to organize that exploration though.Programming and engineering work this way, so my career is a good fit.

But back to the end of Harry Potter. I found a Slate article thatassociated "read the end [of a book, in this case HP] first" with adesire for instant gratification, then reported on a study linkingpersonality traits to instant gratification. The Slate author admitsthe parallel between the study and end-of-HP-readers is a little off,but for me at least, the parallel doesn't work at all. I don't lookat the end for gratification, but for organization. By knowing wherethe story is going, I can watch for the hints and signs along the wayand follow how the structure of the story unfolds (without having toread the book twice). I explore the characters differently once Iknow where they will end up, and I enjoy the studying personalitycause-and-effect, as reading this way provides.

That raises a question, then, of whether I read the ends of all booksfirst. Rarely. I only do this when I know the characters before Istart reading. Reading for me is a search process: looking for thestructure and choices that get from point A to point B. If I knowpoint A (through advance knowledge of characters), I want to know B soI can search the characters personalities from both ends. If I knownothing at point A, I'm happy to let the writing construct the space,as long as I expect that construction to be interesting. Knowing theend can convince me that the construction might be worth reading. Ifeel no remorse over having e-peeked at how HP ends, especially giventhat my interest in the story overall is piqued as a result.